60+ Important 2023 Mobile Marketing Statistics You Need to Know

The world is mobile. 

The number of people who have a phone, and use it to access the internet, is growing all the time. For this reason, you HAVE TO reach them on mobile. 

Mobile marketing used to be just a small part of digital marketing. 

Today, it is the main one. 

The world of mobile marketing is getting more crowded as we speak. To stand out, you have to create a top-of-the-class mobile marketing strategy. Creating a winning mobile marketing strategy means reaching the right audience, at the right place, and at the right time. 

To help you do that, you need to listen to what the market is telling you. Here are some fresh mobile marketing statistics that will help you understand the mobile market better. 

My research has shown me it is not easy to find relevant mobile marketing statistics in a place. I did some googling and realized they are either all over the place or super old. When it comes to the ever-changing mobile marketing landscape, old statistics are not an option. 

For this reason, I’ve created a list of fresh and relevant mobile marketing statistics and trends you need to know in 2023.

Let’s dive right in! 

Most Important Mobile Usage and Traffic Statistics

1. There are 5.22 unique mobile users in the world in 2021 (Datareportal).
2. There are over 3.6 billion smartphone users worldwide. This number is predicted to grow up to 4.3 billion in 2023 (Statista).
3. An average user spends 4 hours and 10 minutes using a mobile device every day (Datareportal).
4. Daily time spent on mobile is growing rapidly year after year. In 2021, it has increased by 20% from 2020 (Datareportal).
5. Android users spent over 3.5 trillion hours using their mobile phones in 2020 (App Annie).
6. By 2025, ¾ of worldwide users will access the Internet using a mobile device (World Advertising Research Center).
7. 84% of Americans access the internet using their mobile phones in 2021 (Semrush).
8. In 2021, 55.7% of web traffic comes from mobile devices. It is followed by laptops and desktops with 41% of web traffic, while tablets and other devices make about 3.5% (Datareportal).
9. Generation Z, Millennials, and Baby Boomers are spending more time on mobile by the year. For all of these generations, the time spent in their favorite apps increased from 16% to 30% (App Annie).

Top Mobile Advertising Statistics 

1. In 2020, mobile ad spend reached $240 billion, which is a 26% increase from the year before (App Annie). 
2. Mobile ad spend is predicted to reach $290 billion by the end of 2021 (App Annie). 
3. The rapid growth of mobile advertising is predicted to slow down to 10.4% by the end of 2022 (Statista). 
4. In 2020, the U.S. was the biggest mobile advertising market, with $120 million in advertising spend (Semrush). 
5. In 2021, advertisers put 51% of their marketing budget into mobile advertising (Digitalexaminer).
6. 92% of Facebook’s total ad revenue comes from mobile advertising (Techjury).
7. Mobile ad placements grew by 95% year over year in the United States (App Annie). 
8. In 2020, U.S. businesses spend 18.5% on mobile advertising. In 2022, this number is predicted to reach 23.3.% (Statista). 

Mobile App Statistics

1. There were 218 billion new mobile app downloads in 2020 (App Annie).
2. By 2023, mobile apps are predicted to generate over $935 billion (Statista).
3. In 2020, the mobile app market consumer spend reached $143 billion. This is 20% more than in the previous year (App Annie).
4. In 2021, 92% of mobile time was spent using mobile apps. (Datareportal).
5. By 2022, daily time spent in mobile apps is predicted to increase to 227 minutes a day, which is 12 minutes more than in 2020 (Semrush). 
6. According to Datareportal, app users spend the most time using social and communication apps (44%), video and entertainment apps (26%), and gaming apps (9%).
7. The most popular messaging app in 2021 is is WhatsApp with 2 billion users. It is followed by Facebook Messenger with 1.3 billion users and Wechat with 1,21 billion users (Statista). 
8. When it comes to usage time, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Instagram take the lead.  Every month, an average user spends 19.5 hours a month using the Facebook app, 19.4 using the Whatsapp app, and 10.3 hours using the Instagram app (Datareportal). 
9. Tinder, TikTok, and Youtube are the top apps in consumer spend in 2021 (Datareportal). 
10. In 2020, Google Play generated $31.9 billion in gaming apps, and $38.6 billion in non-gaming apps (Statista).
11. In Q1 2021, gaming apps were the most widespread app category in the Google Play store with 13.7% of available apps (Statista).
12. In the Apple App Store, gaming apps are also the biggest app category, as they make up for 21.49% of active apps (Statista). 
13. According to SocialPeta, in the first half of 2021, there were more non-gaming app advertisers (77%) than gaming app advertisers (23%).

Top Social Media Statistics

1. In 2021, there were 4.20 billion worldwide social media users. This is 53.6% of the total global population (Datareportal). 
2. 98.8% of social media users are accessing social media via mobile devices (Datareportal). 
3. According to Datareportal, Facebook is the world’s leading social media platform with 2.74 billion monthly active users. The next best ones are Youtube (2.29 billion), Whatsapp (2 billion), Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion), Instagram (1.2 billion). 
4. An average social media user spends 2 hours and 25 minutes using social media every day (Hootsuite). 
5. An average person has an account on 8.4 different social media platforms (Hootsuite).
6. 44.8% of internet users use social media to search for brand-related information (Hootsuite).

Top Mobile Video Statistics

1. 63% of mobile traffic was video traffic in 2020. This number is predicted to grow to 76% by 2025 (Ericsson Mobility Report).
2. 75% of mobile video viewers prefer watching videos horizontally, while 25% of them prefer vertical video (Social Media Week). 
3. Consumption of videos on mobile devices goes up by 100% every single year. (Social Media Today). 
4. 51% of Instagram and Snapchat users prefer video over static content (Semrush). 
5. Over 75% of all video views come from mobile (Techjury).
6. 92% of users who watch videos on mobile share this content with others (Virtuets).
7. Using video content for advertising campaigns can help grow revenue as much as 50% faster than other types of content (Wordstream).
8. 70% of YouTube video views happen on mobile devices (Wordstream).
9. Users who watch Youtube on mobile spend more than one hour a day watching videos (YouTube). 
10. YouTube mobile viewers pay 2x more attention to the video they are watching in comparison to those watching TV (Think With Google). 
11. Mobile video ad spending in the U.S. is predicted to reach $9.26 billion by 2024 (Statista). 
12. Programmatic mobile video advertising is expected to grow to $30 billion in user spending in the U.S. by 2022 (Statista).

Mobile Entertainment Statistics 

1. While mobile time is growing, TV time is decreasing by the year. The average American now spends more than 4 hours on mobile, compared to roughly 3 hours and 45 minutes watching TV (Datareportal). 
2. 16% of people use mobile devices to stream movies, TV shows, and live events (Semrush).
3. According to Business of Apps, the most popular entertainment apps in 2020 were Netflix (233 million downloads), Youtube (170 million downloads), and Amazon Prime (130 million downloads).

Useful Mobile Commerce Statistics

1. In 2020, 31% of US retail spending came from mobile devices (Semrush).
2. Younger generations (16-34) are most likely to use a mobile phone to make online purchases (Datareportal).  
3. 55% of young users (16-24 years old) research products online before purchasing. On the other hand, 59% of older users (55-64 years old) do the same (Datareportal). 
4. 57% of people say they searched for mobile retail apps for additional information on a product/service (Semrush). 
5. During 2020, time spent in Android shopping apps grew by 30% in comparison to the previous year (App Annie).  
6. According to Marketingdive, 40% of mobile marketers use shoppable video ads to promote their products.

Top Voice Search Statistics

1. More than 25% of the global population is using the voice search feature on their mobile phones (Microsoft). 
2. 52% of people who use voice assistants engage with them daily or every other day (Techjury). 
3. 45% of global internet users say they’ve used voice search or gave voice commands over the last month (Datareportal).
4. The majority of voice engagement comes from digital assistants on mobile phones such as Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa. In fact, 72% of US internet users use voice search to engage with popular digital assistants (Microsoft). 
5. More than 1/3 of users think voice ads are not as intrusive as traditional ads. Besides that, they see them as more engaging than other types of ads (Adobe).

Mobile-Friendliness Statistics

1. A website with an unsatisfying mobile experience can lose 9 out of 10 users (Quoracreative)
2. 61% of consumers are more likely to make purchases from mobile-friendly websites (Webfx) 
3. 61% of users will have a more positive opinion about a business if it has a mobile-responsive website (Smart Insights).

Important Location-Based Mobile Marketing Statistics

1. 2/3 of users say they are more likely to buy from a business that customizes mobile website and app content according to their location (Google).
2. 8 out of 10 marketers use location targeting for their mobile advertising campaigns (Siteefy). 
3. Queries like “where to buy” and “near me” are growing by the year (Google). 

Mobile Personalization Statistics

1. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. 
2. 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messages (SmarterHQ). 
3. 84% of businesses report that customer experience is the key personalization factor (Evergage).
4. Personalization can increase the efficiency of advertising spend by up to 30% (Adweek).
5. 67% of consumers think it is important that brands automatically adjust their content based on their real-time actions  (Adobe).
6. 55% of marketers believe that the biggest advantages of personalization are increasing user engagement and improving user experience (Evergage)

Wrap Up

What are all these numbers telling us?

Mobile is constantly growing on all fronts, and we don’t see it slowing down any time soon. For successful mobile marketing campaigns, you simply have to listen to what the market is telling you at the moment. The best thing about numbers is that they never lie, you just have to know how to read them. Also, make sure you stay on top of the main mobile marketing trends. All of this will help you get your mobile marketing strategy to the next level.

Your competitors are already doing it, so make sure you’re not a mile behind.